“Clock” (Hulu) Movie Review by Rafy Mediavilla (@Rmediavilla) #ClockHulu
“Clock” is the story of a woman who enrolls in a clinical trial to try and fix her seemingly broken biological clock after friends, family, and society pressures her to have children. Dianna Agron (“Shiva Baby”, forthcoming “Acidman” and “El Elegido”) leads as Ella, with Jay Ali (“Carnival Row,” “Daredevil”) as her husband and Saul Rubinek (“Unforgiven,” “Frasier”) as her father. Melora Hardin (“The Office,” “The Bold Type”) features as the pioneering doctor managing Ella’s treatment.
Listen as a guy I completely understand that in the world we live today, a man should never be talking about what a woman can or cannot do with her body, and I absolutely loved that Alexis Jacknow a female writer and director was able to use the power of cinema as her platform to give her own two cents on this topic. And as a fan of horror movies, the main reason I wanted to cover this film is that I’ve always been very vocal about seeing more females in leading roles, and many female directors and writers continue to be overshadowed by their male counterparts.
With that statement out of the way, I have to say that while “Clock” was one glaring flaw, I absolutely loved what Alexis Jacknow did with this movie. I was fully engaged with the story and the psychological side of it. The horror of motherhood, especially at the later stages of a woman’s life. The back and forward that keep me second-guessing what is real and what is not. Dianna Agron superb performance, which I will dive into it a bit later in this review, and the connecting of her current state of mind with her family background, which I will also dive into later in this review. All these factors played a huge role in keeping me on the edge of my seat with this story, and the social commentary behind it will also spark a conversation that are well worth your time at least one time.
Now let me dive into Dianna Agron performance. She absolutely transform herself into her character, and from beginning to end you could see the pain in her eyes in every single scene, the confusion of what was happening to her and what the right thing to do for her, her family, and her relationship. This movie works best every single time the story focuses on the horror of motherhood as seen from the eyes of the protagonist, and Agron did one hell of a job with her performance.
What did not work for me was the undeveloped backstory of her connection with her situation regarding motherhood with her family. To me, it felt as if Alexis Jacknow took a page out of the Hereditary movie, or maybe this part of the story was heavily inspired by that movie but didn’t take the time to fully and truly dive into that side of the story. Because while we do it manifest in many scenes, the connection between the protagonist’s motherhood issue being tied to her family is only mentioned in a superficial way, to the point it left me wanting to see more of that side of the story by the final act. I truly felt incomplete when our protagonist finally understands what is happening in the final act.
In the end, while we have seen many horror movies touch upon the social commentary of the nightmares of motherhood “Clock” stand right there with them all as another watchable project that keeps you engaged because of its extremely smart narrative using the horror elements in its favor.
